a jaunt into a village

I know we're in Vrindavan now, but there's still some Mayapur adventures and happenings we'd like to share with you all...so,

I received a call from a friend asking if I'd be down to visit her maid's pregnant daughter in a nearby village.  The pregnant mom was scheduled for a cesarean the next day and though she wanted to have her baby that way, the rest of the family felt it wasn't necessary and wanted a second opinion...midwifery skills ki jaya!

We boarded a boat, motored across the Jalangi, hopped on a rickshaw and wound our way into a Bengali village.  Little laughing children were running after the rickshaw yelling in Bengali, "Foreigner!  Foreigner!"  No one in the family spoke English (thankfully, my friend who originally called me is fluent in Bengali and she served as translator).
The young mother didn't even want to see us, but was eventually coerced by her mom, auntie and grandmother into letting me check her out. The whole family just stared at me expectantly as the tight-lipped young mom sat in front of me...I was thinking, "Ok, didn't you all invite me here?  What are you wanting me to do?"  I spoke with the mom a bit (general friendly prenatal questions) and then did a basic prenatal.  Her baby felt and sounded great and as far as I could tell, there didn't seem to be any physical reason why she couldn't experience a natural labor...though her mentality might have served as a huge obstacle...
Anyways, we spoke in length about the benefits of natural labor and about the realities of motherhood--both the challenges and rewards and by the time we left, she was actually willing to wait on the c-section.  However, when her husband got home later that day, he insisted that they could afford the surgery and wanted to proceed as planned...

She did have the baby (a little girl) born by cesarean the next day...and as far as affording it, well...they had to take out a loan to pay for the surgery (the price of what the family makes in wages for a whole year!) plus having to pay 1000 rupees per day of a mandatory week long postpartum hospital stay...the OB was leaving on vacation, hence the "urgent" need of performing the "necessary" c-section right away...2 weeks before her due date...

The baby needed some assistance because she was taken early and the mom got a postpartum infection...the mother is young and not too interested in being a mother so I was told...her mother, the baby's grandmother, is the primary caregiver for the little one...

As a "thank you" for making the home visit, the grandmother grabbed two bottles, rushed outside, milked their cow and gave us some fresh milk.  I've never tasted anything like it (yes, first we boiled it twice @ home)--so so so creamy and rich...we hope that through the visit, the new mom will remember the love she was shown and learn to share her own love with her beautiful new daughter.

the family cows (our friend Radha Sundari petting the calf--she was the one who took us into the village)

behind their homes (cow dung patties drying on the ground and on tree trunk to be used as cooking fuel)

back yard

court yard--the whole family lives in homes surrounding this space

sunset over the Jalangi

Nitai and Vraj Mohan (Radha Sundari's son) on the boat ride home

Date palms--tapped like maple trees to make date gur (delicious!).  The trees are hacked into angles to prevent ants from climbing up them and infiltrating the syrup (it works too!).

walking home on the date palm road